A year ago, it seemed like a pretty daunting goal to produce 130 hours of automotive programming for YouTube by the end of 2012. And yet, DRIVE did it. That is, shoot, edit and "air" the equivalent of 10 years' worth of TopGear episodes in a single year.

Proving a media concept for which there's no template, not a lot of production money, and an as-yet-immature advertising market is no small challenge. The BBC pours millions into TopGear, and for good reason. Producing automotive content for the even-smaller-still screen, without blowing a Bentley-sized hole in YouTube's producer's program budget, has for DRIVE — an entity that didn't exist before last December — been a matter of balancing trial and error with a few safe bets and a handful of experiments along the way.

And, of course, doing it in a forum into which anyone can spit gobs of bile and venom at will is always — to quote Nicholas Cage — a rockin' good time.

So, with DRIVE having survived to fight another year, here's hoping for even better shows — and more Jalopnik on DRIVE videos — in 2013.